Monday, 5 April 2010

The Pakistanis gathered every morning, from 07.30 a.m. to approximately 12.30 p.m., in front of their consulate in Athens are a human sea covering a triangle in the very center of the Greek capital, namely an important part of the streets Loukianou-Ypsilantou-Karneadou. The –Greek- people who dwell in that (ex-residential) area have sent several letters of protest to the mayor of Athens and the police authorities – but so far no reply has been forthcoming. The question, nonetheless, is what are all those Pakistanis expecting from their consulate every morning, from the summer of 2006 to the present? That was the question a member of the staff of Eleutherotypia, an influential (and, of course, democratic) Athens newspaper, originally asked the ambassador of Pakistan in Greece. The ambassador gave her the following answer: “About 50,000 Pakistanis live in Greece. Our consulate, therefore, offers them a lot of services such as the issuing of new passports, visas and other documents. We contacted the mayor of Athens and we hope to co-operate with him. We are ready, moreover, to increase our personnel and simplify the relevant procedures. We do not ask money for our services and the little sums of money that are necessary for the new documents issued by us are paid through bank accounts. Unfortunately, the people from our country do not know that. This is why so many Pakistanis are gathered here every morning (instead of going to a bank)”.

Crowds at the Pakistani ConsulateHowever, when the same person from Eleutherotypia asked some of the Pakistanis gathered, she was given another answer: “The ambassador and his staff do not care about us. In point of fact, they love money. We spend so much time at the gate of our consulate and, as a result, we have to pay 500-1,000 euros in order to have new passports. If you want a fuller explanation we can give it to you”. And of course there are not merely 50,000 Pakistanis in Greece; for if one considers the crowds gathered in the center of Athens during the last three years (about 1,000 every day, five days per week) they must now be about 500,000-700,000.

Huge Queue to Gain Greek Citizenship IllegallyA policeman sent by the authorities not to protect the Greek people from the Pakistanis, who urinate in the open air and dirty up the whole area, but to protect the Pakistanis from the Greeks who every morning see the degradation of the Athens historical and residential center, gave another explanation: “These crowds from Pakistan entered Greece illegally – thanks to the tolerance of the relevant Greek authorities. Once they are on Greek soil, they destroy their documents and, thereafter, come here, to their consulate. And the consulate personnel give them new passports as well as documents certifying that they had visas to enter Greece, but they lost their passports etc. In short, the consulate, through a remuneration of about 1,000 euros per person, gives them documents thanks to which all the people who entered Greece illegally, represent themselves as “legal immigrants”. And the point is now that, thanks to the Greek government, a lot of these people will be given the right to vote in the next municipal elections. And last but not least: the consulate of Pakistan at Athens is the gate through which the influxes of Pakistanis “immigrants” enter Europe.